It has been observed, by nearly every one who has written on the subject of Scottish chap-books, that, as truthful delineations of the manners and ways of thinking of native peasantry, they excel those of most other nations. There is an equal unanimity of opinion that this superiority of the Scottish chap-books is due to the penetrating observation, the broad humour, and the truthful adherence to nature of Dougal Graham—a genius of a somewhat grotesque type, whose literary ambition it was to make his writings “acceptable, especially, to those of common education” like himself; and whose social aspirations were satisfied by the appointment of skellat bellman to the city of Glasgow.
Dougal was born in the small hamlet known by the Celtic name of Raploch, situated at the western base of the romantic rock on which stands Stirling Castle; and now in a most tumble-down condition, characteristically abandoned to the natives of Erin. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but is placed in or about the year 1724. Nothing is recorded of his boyhood and youth, except that he learned no trade, it is said, on account of the poverty of his parents, but probably as much on account of physical deformities, which rendered him unsuitable for most mechanical labour. His education does not appear to have gone beyond reading and writing; for his composition shows no traces of his having been taught any other grammar than that which regulates the conversation of the class whose manners he so faithfully sketches. It is related that he tried farm service for some time at Campsie, in the west of Stirlingshire, but soon found it incompatible with his physical constitution and the restlessness of his disposition.
If the date assigned to his birth be correct, he was only twenty-one when the rebellion of 1745 awoke the martial ardour of the youth of Scotland, and Dougal, notwithstanding his incapacity for bearing arms, had his love of adventure fired by the popular enthusiasm evoked by the romantic enterprise of “Prince Charlie.” The Fords of Frew, on the Forth—the Rubicon crossed by the Highland army in its march into the Lowlands—are only a few miles to the west of Dougal’s birthplace; and it was here that he appears to have embarked in the popular cause, with what purposes it would be difficult to say. In his metrical History of the Rebellion, although he writes in the first person, he makes no mention of any adventures personal to himself; he records only what he saw, and in the preface he says “that he had been an eye witness of most of the movements of the Highland army from the crossing of the Fords of Frew till the final defeat at Culloden.” Nor does he make any allusion to the capacity in which he observed the movements of the army; and, as it is every way improbable that he gave the Jacobites any other assistance than that of sympathy, the conjecture almost amounts to a certainty that he followed them as a sutler. He had sufficient pride not to mention the fact in his writings; yet, no doubt, a man of his genial and outspoken disposition must often have referred to the incidents of his campaigning among his boon companions. We are disposed to think, considering the circumstances, that he must have been born earlier than 1724; for the coolness and self-confidence, not to say the indifference, with which he regarded the success or failure of either side, the impartiality of his narrative, and, it is conjectured, his dealing with either side, according as it suited his convenience or his safety, argue greater experience of the world than could reasonably be expected of a person of such limited education at the age of twenty-one. It is true he was born within hearing of the muster trumpet of Stirling Castle, and must, from his boyhood, have been sufficiently familiar with the garrison exercises to make him at home in the bustle of a camp; but there is the fact, that, almost before the smoke of the rebellion was extinguished, his metrical History, consisting of over five thousand lines, Hudibrastic metre, is announced in the Glasgow Courier as “A full and particular account of the late rebellion, in the years 1745 and 1746, beginning with the Pretender’s embarking for Scotland, and then, an account of every battle, siege, or skirmish that has happened in either Scotland, or England; to which is added several addresses and epistles to the Pope, Pagans, Poets, and Pretender; all in metre; price fourpence.” After stating that any bookseller of packman might have it on easier terms from James Duncan, or the author, D. Graham, it is added:—“The like has not been done since the days of David Lindsay.” The book appeared in September, 1746, and has been so popular, that by 1828 it reached its twentieth edition. The first edition is now supposed to be extinct; yet so late as 1830 a copy was in the possession of Sir Walter Scott, which he intended publishing, in facsimile, for the Maitland Club.
The statement in the advertisement, that dealers might have copies from the author, points to his having a place of business or residence in Glasgow; but this does not appear to have been the case, then at least, for in the preface he tells his readers that it was
“Composed by the Poet, Dougal Graham;
In Stirlingshire he lives at hame.”
The probability is that he made his father’s house at Raploch his home, whence he started on his journeys, as a chapman, through the counties of Stirling, Lanark, and Dumbarton, more rarely over the three Lothians, and occasionally into Fifeshire. Glasgow would, of course, be his purchasing market, which he would frequently visit for replenishing his stock; and, while there, his resort would be well known to his confrères in the “travelling line.” He continued thus for several years, after the publication of his history, compiling chap-books, and writing poems and songs, for which there seems to have been an eager competition among the booksellers of Glasgow, Paisley, Stirling and Falkirk, until, by his industry and saving, he accumulated sufficient capital to set up a printing office in the “Salt Mercat” of Glasgow.
Dougal did not make a fortune by his campaigning, any more than the chiefs whose wake he generally followed; but he was at least more fortunate than most of them, in getting back to where he might begin. At first he appears to have encountered some hardships for want of money, and, possibly from the dislike of Jacobitism, and all who “melled with the rebels,” for which Glasgow was distinguished; and the exasperation caused by these difficulties he ventilates on the heads of the Papists, to whom, with bad rhyme, and worse reason, he attributes the general scarcity of money, and his own in particular:
“You Papists are a cursed race,
And this I tell you to your face;